...there is no explaining anything by reasoning and so it is useless to reason.

A cultivated and decent man cannot be vain without setting a fearfully high standard for himself, and without despising and almost hating himself at certain moments.

The whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano key.

But man is a fickle and disreputable creature and perhaps, like a chess-player, is interested in the process of attaining his goal rather than the goal itself.

I am alone, I thought, and they are everybody.

It is a law of nature that every decent man on earth is bound to be a coward and a slave

I will put up with any mockery rather than pretend that I am satisfied when I am hungry.

For though your mind is active enough, your heart is darkened with corruption, and without a pure heart there can be no full or genuine sensibility.

Man is fond of reckoning up his troubles, but does not count his joys.

What does reason know? Reason only knows what it has succeeded in learning...

Man only likes counting his grief, he doesn't count his happiness. But if he were to count properly, he'd see that there's enough of both lots for him.

Sometimes the ugliest parts of ourselves are what others love the most.

We do not need to teach our children how to fight. We need to teach our children the miraculousness and transientness of life.

We all enter this world crying. Laughter is something we have to learn

If the thunder is not loud the peasant forgets to cross himself.

The only security men can have for their political liberty, consists in keeping their money in their own pockets.

Lord, give me the strength to accomplish what You've given me to do and the faith to trust You that what I haven't been able to accomplish You've already assigned to someone else.

All perfection is melancholy.

I do not trust doctors. They are like golfers. Every one has a different answer to your problems.

Whatever else you do, listen to your Deepest Self. Love Her and be true to Her, speak Her truth, always.

He who achieves power by violence does not truly become lord or master.